Branstad to Vander Plaats: I won

Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has a message for his defeated primary opponent, conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats: It’s over, and the Republican Party has picked a nominee.

Branstad defeated Vander Plaats by nearly 10 points in a primary earlier this month, but over the weekend Vander Plaats mounted a challenge at the state GOP convention to the former governor’s chosen running mate, state Sen. Kim Reynolds. Republican delegates nominated Reynolds over Vander Plaats by a closer than expected margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.

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Vander Plaats still hasn’t endorsed Branstad and hasn’t ruled out running for governor as an independent. But while Branstad noted that Vander Plaats put up a “spirited challenge,” he emphasized that the primary and convention both had clear outcomes.

“Remember that the person who opposed [Reynolds] for the nomination has been running here for 10 years, has probably spoken to everyone in that room 10 times,” Branstad said. “We took the risk of going to the most conservative base of our party, and we won it fair and square, just like I won the primary fair and square.”

Branstad expressed optimism about his chances, whatever Vander Plaats decides to do next, and said he hasn’t spoken to his opponent since the convention.

“I’ve indicated that I always have an open door and I’m very willing to meet with him whenever he wants,” he said. “I’m pretty confident that we’re going to win regardless of whether there are independent candidates in the race or not.”

There’s little doubt that an independent run by Vander Plaats would siphon votes from Branstad, potentially giving Democratic Gov. Chet Culver a wider path to reelection after trailing Branstad by wide margins all year. Vander Plaats didn’t return a request for comment, and his supporters say they’re not sure whether he will pull the trigger on a bid outside the GOP.

Danny Carroll, a former state lawmaker who serves on the board of the conservative Iowa Family Policy Center PAC, suggested the weekend’s convention results might be encouraging to Vander Plaats.

“It was almost a duplicate of what happened in the primary,” said Carroll, whose group backed Vander Plaats in the primary election. “I think it indicates that there is a strong presence of continued support for what Bob stood for and that almost half of the Republican Party is interested in doing things differently than the traditional establishment way of doing business, and they demonstrated that again on Saturday.”

Vander Plaats would face few logistical obstacles in running as an independent: in order to get his name on the ballot, he would have to collect only 1,500 signatures from at least 10 counties by Aug. 13. Fundraising could be a major obstacle for Vander Plaats, however, and even Carroll’s group might not necessarily swing behind him in a general election.

“It’s up to Bob and it’s his decision,” Carroll said. “I do know that it will be difficult at this point to support Terry Branstad. Obviously we’re not going to support his opponent either, but there’s a lot of other work to be done without the governor’s race.”